Christ My Song - 556
Good is thy will, O Lord, and good thy way - Furnace Heat
(Horatius Bonar/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Furnace Heat.
1. Good is thy will, O Lord, and good thy way;
good is thy discipline, though now so sore.
Good is thy guidance in this evil day;
good will all soon appear, when on the shore,
landed and safe, we shall be tried no more. PDF - Midi
2. Not joyous now, but grievous, are thy strokes;
and yet their fruit is purity divine.
Thy rod we need; yet more thy power and skill
to mould, according to thy fair design,
thy perfect likeness in us line by line.
3. Yet spare us, spare us, for the flesh is weak,
and the poor spirit shrinks beneath the rod;
now it is willing, then it fails and faints
beneath the pressure of the heavy load,
asking: And must we suffer thus, O God?
4. And yet we dare not ask a lighter load,
a gentler discipline, a smoother way,
an easier life on earth, a sweeter cup,
a tenderer touch in moulding this hard clay!
Teach us to trust, to suffer, and obey.
5. We place ourselves within thy holy hands,
saying, Not our will, Lord, but thine be done!
All that we need thou knowest, O our God:
give what we need, yet spare each feeble one
what may be spared, and yet the kingdom won.
Horatius Bonar, The Song of the New Creation, 1872, 96-97.